Ethiopia, Eritrea Sign Agreement in Saudi Arabia

Eritrea and Ethiopia signed an agreement at a summit in Saudi Arabia Sunday, further bolstering relations between the two countries which had been at war for twenty years.

The details of Sunday’s specific agreement, signed in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, were not immediately made clear.

“The Jeddah Peace Agreement signed today before the CTHM is a historic milestone for the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea and will contribute to strengthening security and stability in the region at large,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in a Tweet.

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Relations between the Horn of Africa neighbors have improved since Prime Minister Abiy announced in June that Addis Ababa would finally honor a U.N.-brokered deal signed in 2000 to end a two-year border war that killed an estimated 70,000 people. The war was followed by nearly two decades of cold war, proxy conflicts and, at times, open hostilities.

The announcement led to a historic peace deal signed last month by Abiy and Afwerki that formally ended one of Africa’s longest, most intractable conflicts.

Eritrea, a former province of Ethiopia, broke away from its much larger neighbor in 1993.